Let the wolf in

Since last October, I have been running drama workshops with years 4 and 5 in a small village primary school. These workshops have led us into writing a play for performance. In this article I set out examples of how their involvement has impacted on the students' thinking. The workshops and the play are based on A Wolf's Tail. This is an allegorical tale designed to introduce children to the world of uncritical thinking and populist politics. We've looked at stereotyping; false news; asylum seekers; critical thinking and constructing an evidence based persuasive argument.

A lack of funding may partly explain the absence of the arts in education. However, this is only one strand. Roger and Annie Kirk run a charity, the Helen Foundation, which aims to provide arts experiences for children and young people in the Teignbridge area. Each year they offer schools funding for arts-based work but increasingly are finding it difficult to find takers. The narrowing of the curriculum and the pressure on schools to be successful means staff are unwilling to take the risk of dedicating time to the arts when it could be used for teaching ‘proper subjects.’